I joined the Valuation Office in March 1974 as a valuer.
Its main function is to value property so that local authorities can collect rates from the occupiers. The valuation system was governed by legislation dating back to 1850 when an act prescribed the basis of valuation, the exact format for recording the valuations and the rules and procedures around modifying the data.
The Valuation Office had a manuscript database of 1.8 million property records. All additions, amendments and deletions to this valuation list had to be handwritten. Older manuscripts were archived, so that the collection stretched back to the original 1850 Valuation.
In 1980 one valuer, Eamon O’Kennedy, remarked that the only change in the organisation’s practices and procedures since then was that the car had replaced the horse as the usual mode of transport for valuers.
The first attempt to introduce computing was in the early 1970s, when approximately 240,000 records were captured in digital format. The Civil Service Computer Centre at Johns Road, Inchicore held and processed these files. It used punch cards for data input and supplied us with printouts on large sheets of computer paper. The Valuation Office filed these sheets according to geographic location.
This initial system offered little, if any, benefit for the valuers. The digitised documents came from just four local authority areas. Staff in the Valuation Office soon came to frown on assignments of work that involved these counties. The computer output employed codes and forms that were cumbersome to use, especially when compared to the traditional way of making amendments with free-style handwriting. The system did, however, prove invaluable by paving the way for later moves to a digital database. It not only provided a data model and concepts for future prototypes, but also a volume of data for populating and testing future systems.
There were no further technology developments until the arrival of Jim Larkin and Tom O’Connor at the Valuation Office in the late 1980s. Both came from the Department of Finance and had no allegiance to the old archaic systems. They brought a breath of fresh air into the organisation.
Brian Chadwick was the head of IT in the Department of Finance. He and his staff helped the Valuation Office to introduce screen access to valuation data for the first time, using programs developed in Cobol. The 240,000 records held in Johns Road were loaded onto a Digital PDP computer in the Department of Finance. The Valuation Office used four old VT100 dumb terminals and dial-up modems to access this data. Printing took place in the Department of Finance.
This initiative was followed by the procurement of a leased line and a year later the Valuation Office obtained permission from IT Control Section to purchase a second-hand Digital PDP-11/44 computer for £26,000. This was the organisation’s first major expenditure on an IT system.
At around this time IT staff in the Department of Finance developed a suite of programs in Cobol to manage our records of property sales. Approximately 12,000 records were added to this system annually. Prior to this initiative, the details of sales were typed in duplicate – one copy filed according to property category and the other copy according to geographic location.
In 1990 Tom O’Connor retired as Commissioner of Valuation and Seamus Rogers replaced him. Seamus came from the Revenue Commissioners, where he was accustomed to processing large volumes of digital data. He was totally committed to modernising the Valuation Office.
I had an interest in technology. I had a Tandy 286 computer and a NEC pinwriter printer at home since 1988. I used the computer for letters and spreadsheets, running WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. As a result of this interest I was asked to set up an IT section in the Valuation Office and to begin modernising all our business systems. I was formally appointed to this position in 1990. In addition to IT I was assigned to work on the modernisation and strategic development of the organisation as a whole.
In the 1990s the Valuation Office had approximately 70 valuers, 50 administrators and 20 technical staff who mainly looked after the mapping function. We made approximately 70,000 updates and additions to the list each year, taking account of new, improved or demolished properties.
By 1992 the maintenance and backup of the PDP-11 was proving to be an onerous task and we soon began to consider our next generation of IT solutions.
We began to explore the route of open systems and were introduced to Robert Baker and Mike Ryan. Both were working for Sysnet then but subsequently left to form BakerRyan. The public sector at that time was biased towards Digital Equipment and solutions based on its computers. The low entry costs and promise of more open systems nudged us, however, towards Unix. In 1992 we engaged Sysnet to install Interactive Unix on an Intel 386 PC and at the same time dipped into the world of relational databases for the first time with Informix.
Mike Ryan developed some small databases in Informix and we were astonished by their performance. The relational technology and the faster disc hardware accelerated search speeds and improved the flexibility of access to our data. This move to Unix and Informix encouraged us to go to the market in 1994 for a Unix server and additional Informix licences. We purchased a Sun Microsystems server for around £23,000 from Horizon Open Systems. Kelly Systems won a tender to develop Informix-based programs which allowed us transfer the data on our PDP to our new Unix server.
Our first introduction to the internet came during this period. In September 1993 BakerRyan set up an internet access account for us. Although I was not aware of it at the time, this was the first internet connection in the civil service. We used it mainly to source work-arounds, patches and drivers. We regarded e-mail as interesting, but of little or no relevance to our core business. We made little use of it except to contact our suppliers.
While there was initial fascination with the internet connection, we in the Valuation Office had had no idea of its potential or the future possibilities. At that stage none of our local authority customers or government departments had a presence online. It was not until we developed electronic exchange of data with the local authorities in 2001, and when the general public adopted the internet, that the full benefits of our e-mail connection to the wider world were realised.
We did not broadcast our venture into Unix or our online connection. The perceived wisdom at the time was to operate as much as possible below the radar of the Central Information Technology Service (CITS) at the Department of Finance. CITS favoured conservative mainstream systems and approaches. As an organisation we needed to focus on low cost, creative open systems, while ensuring that any data we captured digitally was in an open and portable format.
During the 1990s the Valuation Office captured approximately 1.6 million valuation records and automated its administration processes. Kelly Systems developed our initial workflow systems. Later on we enhanced them in-house with staff member Paul Malone proving highly skilful in this area.
All of our work was now processed internally. Because of this, and because workflow was an integral part of everything we did, it was relatively easy to allow online access to our data in 2002.
Initially we had two copies of our main database – one on our local servers and the other held on an Eircom server that was updated each night. Within a short time we moved to full mirroring and provided our customers with access to online case tracking. Each of them had a unique property number and a PIN number.
The adoption of computerised systems transformed the work of the organisation. Valuers moved from pen-based manuscript systems to workflow on laptop computers. Digital maps replaced paper maps and workflow allowed the planning and monitoring of work. Customers could track their cases online and local authorities could submit their work and receive their returns electronically.
By 2007 the core work of the organisation was a closed electronic system. All of our files and records could only be initiated, processed and issued by using our digital systems.
Last edit: March 2016
© Gilbert Storrs 2016